[jdhawg]

Originally Posted by Al Skierkiewicz

I thought that finals, (Atlanta last year and Houston) allowed two additional people to hang out near, but not on, the playing field to manage the mobile pit and battery changing. If you would normally be allowed in the pit between matches where there is plenty of people, why would you prevent anyone between finals matches? I think the two or three is good rule to stick with even if it isn't spelled out somewhere.

At the Lonestar Regional last year, I was the 'runner' who toted the batteries back and forth to the pits. I don't recall anyone telling me that I couldn't work on the robot if it broke, but we didn't have any problems so it didn't really matter. At the Championship Event, we had the drive team as well as three or four Mentors/Engineers on the floor of the Georgia Dome during our division finals. It was a good thing, too. Our robot took quite a beating and we did a lot of repairs between matches. We had to wear a special sticker that authorized us on the floor, but these weren't given out until the time came to move the robot to the arena floor.